Between Us

The First Date

She raised a brow, almost wanting to chuckle at his confession. "Don't tell me you've started every single rumor there was about you in those magazines."

With a half smile, he shook his head. "No, no. That was probably my father or someone on my PR team. That's where I learned a lot of things, actually. Especially with how social media works."

"So, we can't just post that we're dating and then leave it alone?"

"Only if you want the media to immediately start bashing you and claim our relationship is 'superficial' or 'out of nowhere.'"

Social media was a strange area of the internet that Marinette never really understood. At least she had Adrien to explain things to her. "Then how do we start off this ruse?"

He smirked. There were only two people in her life whose smirk could send a spark down her spine. "We start hinting that there is something more going on between us. The media already knows you as one of my friends, so all we have to do is to start being spotted doing things that we don't normally do. With just us."

With just us. This was already sending her into a spiral within her mind. "The media isn't going to hate me, right?"
He quickly waved her off. "Hate you? Marinette, there is absolutely nothing but to love about you. Alya was honestly smart for putting us up to this since my fans already love us together."

She wanted to choke on air when he said that. "T-they do?"

"Do you not look at the comments every time I post a picture with you in it?"

In truth, she didn't. She always assumed it would be bombarded with girls hating the fact that he was hanging out with a single girl or people just complimenting Adrien's appearance. Both of which she didn't need more of with her unrequited crush on the model. Sure, she tended to stalk his social media a whole lot back in school, but she slowly stopped such a habit. Even then, she didn't pay much mind to the comments.

When she shook her head, Adrien dug out his phone from his jean pocket, tapped on the screen a few times, and handed it to her. "Just skim through those."

He had opened his Instagram page and extended the comment section on one of the more recent group photos he posted at his father's spring fashion show. She scrolled through the comments, surprised at the turnout and how right Adrien was. While she was correct about the many Adrien fans complimenting him and professing their superficial love to him, a lot of them were about her. More specifically, how pretty she was and when she and Adrien were ever going to get together. Some were even speculating that they were in a private relationship and trying to be together without the eyes of the media.

How she desperately wished that theory was correct.

If anything, the fact that a lot of his fanbase already liked her gave her more motivation than what she started off with when agreeing to this deal. Maybe this was just the tiny push she needed to feel more confident about faking as Adrien Agreste's girlfriend.

"Wow," she breathed out before handing him back his phone. "This will be easier than I thought, then."

"Exactly. There are already people speculating that we're bound to get together. That's just how the media is whenever a guy hangs out with someone of the opposite sex. So, we just need to add fuel to the fire."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?"

He grinned, stuffing his phone back into his pocket. "We're going to go on a date."

Marinette took in a sharp breath, feeling weary after hearing Adrien say that directly to her face with no hesitation. "A-a date?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Well, a fake date. I already talked to my photographer about taking some paparazzi-staged photos of us on a coffee date. That's why I asked if you were busy later today."